Disclaimer:
I don't own SPN nor any of the songs that I mentioned here.

Please
read and review! Thanks!

o0o

"There
you go boys, good as new."

Sam
grinned. "We appreciate everything Bobby. Thanks."

"Anytime,"
Bobby replied. "If you two need anything else in the future, you
know where to find me."

For the
first time in weeks after their Dad's death, Dean smiled. "Sure
thing," He turned to his brother standing beside him, carrying
their bags. "Sam, put our stuff in the trunk. Thanks."

"Will
do." Sam replied, heading towards the back of the car. As much
as he had detested hunting in his earlier years, it was good to be
finally heading out again.

Bobby
began to walk back to his house. "You boys better get going."

"Yeah.
We'll be seeing you." Sam nodded absently as he placed the bags
in the trunk, slamming it down while watching Dean ease in the
driver's seat of the newly restored Impala. Sam grinned inwardly. His
brother had been waiting for this moment for a long time, had been
waiting to get back into the car he loved so much and just drive and
just get back to normal, or at least the Winchester version of it.

Suddenly,
Dean got out of the car, his expression going from shock to denial to
utter outrage in seconds.

"What's
up?" Sam asked curiously. Nothing could be wrong with the Impala
now, seeing as they had just finished repairing it the other day.

Dean
didn't reply. Instead, he began to head in the direction of the
house, where Bobby had just disappeared. Sam could sense the anger
building up inside of him, although he had no idea of what had been
the cause of it,

Seeing
that Dean wasn't going to answer his question, he decided to find out
what exactly was wrong himself. He headed towards the driver's side
of the car, where he presumed his brother had seen, well, whatever it
was he saw that pissed him off so much. At first, Sam didn't notice
anything out of the ordinary. Everything looked fine, at any rate
better than it had been right after the collision.

Then he
saw it, what had surprised and angered Dean so much.

He really, truly couldn't believe his eyes.

Seconds
later, he could hear Bobby yelling at Dean, trying to preempt what
Sam was sure was going to come.

"Look,
your cassette player got wrecked in the collision and there wasn't
anything else I could replace it with!"

Sam
presumed that it hadn't worked and that Dean had already found Bobby
somewhere in the house because he heard a furious roar that he was
sure could be heard from miles away.

"Bobby,
what the hell were you thinking when you placed a CD player
in my car?"

o0o

A few
weeks later

"Thanks
Jo."

Jo
Harvelle gave him a small smile as she handed him his beer. "Sure."

Dean
nodded and took a sip. They had been driving for the last 8 hours and
it was good to be able to stretch and relax. He was about to prop his
legs up on the table when he was met by Ellen Harvelle's stern gaze,
and proceeded to lower his feet. It was still pretty early for folks
to be coming to bar so it was empty save for him, Sam, Jo, Ellen and
Ash. Ash was seated across him, eyes staring intently at the screen
in front of him. Sam had asked him to check if there were any signs
of the demon anywhere, hoping for a lead. Unfortunately, in the last
hour and a half Ash had been trying to find anything remotely
concerning the demon, nothing had turned up yet.

As much
as Dean wanted to find the sonuvabitch, he didn't think he was up to
it right now. The older Winchester, more like the eldest one he
thought, was still grieving and wasn't dealing with their Dad's death
as well as he wanted Sam to think. He couldn't afford to cry or to
let his defenses down. It wasn't about his fear of 'chick flick
moments' or anything like that as everyone else in the world,
including Sam thought.

It was
about not letting Sam down.

It was
about protecting his brother, the only one left in his family. He
knew Sam was going through a rough time as well, torn up with regret
and guilt as well as grief. That meant he had to be strong for Sam,
to take care of him not only because John had told him to but also
because he loved his brother very much, though he never said it. As
for Dad's death, Dean had his own assumptions on how it happened and
at the moment, he wasn't willing to share it with anyone, especially
not Sam.

He would
when the time was right.

At that
moment, Sam was seated at the bar, talking to Ellen about something
Dean couldn't make out. He suspected it was something about Ellen
having any new cases for them to work on, any new things to hunt.
Besides, it wasn't like he was going to be able to hear anything over
the songs Jo had playing on the jukebox. Despite the fact the songs
weren't his type, it was better than the songs they had been
listening to in the car for the past couple of weeks. Anyway, it was
better than
listening to Sam trying and failing to get him to talk about his
feelings, attempting to psychoanalyze him.

Dean had
rewarded his brother for his efforts with stubbornness, a radio
blasted to the highest volume it could manage and the finger. He knew
that it was only a matter of time before he went insane without his
music, although he knew that Sam was silently rejoicing in the fact
that he could no longer play his Metallica or Black Sabbath tapes
anymore. Aside from that, another problem was that not many of the
towns they passed through had music stores and none of the ones they
had passed by had the kind of music he was looking for.

Absently,
his eyes flickered to Ash as he took a sip of beer. The man still
hadn't found anything related to the demon.

Suddenly,
a thought crossed Dean's mind and somewhere in his head, a light bulb
switched on.

"Hey
Ash?"

"Yeah
dude?"

"Does
that thing have a CD burner?"

o0o

The next
day

"Hey
Sammy I'm going out already okay? Don't take too long."

"It's
Sam, and yeah, I'll be there in a minute." Sam rolled his eyes
and grumbled.

Since
Dean had already carried all their bags to the Impala, the only thing
left for him to do was to check if they had left anything in the
room. Scanning his surroundings and seeing that nothing was left
behind, he left the room and headed towards the bar where Jo and
Ellen where.

"Keep
in touch you hear?" Ellen said firmly, a slight smile on her
face.

Sam
grinned right back at her. "No problem."

Jo nodded
her head towards the door. "Dean already said his goodbyes. You
should get going."

"Yeah.
Bye." Sam replied, waving at them before heading outside to the
Impala.

As he
walked towards the car, he smiled inwardly. Thanks to Bobby, he
wasn't going to have to deal with Dean's taste of music for a long,
long time. True, he was sure that somewhere along the way, Dean would
find a CD with some of the songs he liked on it, or a cassette player
that he could install into the Impala but Sam was pretty sure that
day wasn't today.

He opened
the door and as he got in the car, he was greeted by a sound of
"Enter Sandman" blasting through the Impala's speakers.

Sam had
no words although his face said it all. A look of incomprehension and denial in his features.

Dean
grinned.

"Four
words, five syllables Sammy. Ash had a burner."

Sam's
forehead wrinkled and if possible, his expression grew more
disbelieving.

Sam
sighed internally. 12 hours of having to listen to a constant barrage
of Metallica, Black Sabbath and Motorhead. Right now, their
destination seemed like more than a million miles away.

It was
going to be a long, long drive.

"Look
Sam, I'm gonna be fair. I'm gonna let you pick." Dean said all
of a sudden.

"Pick
what?" Sam asked suspiciously.

Dean
grinned triumphantly.

"What
do you want to listen to first, 'Back in Black' or 'Highway to
Hell'?"

o0o

A few
weeks later

"Hey
Sam, I'm gonna take a shower alright?"

"Sure."

Once Sam
was sure that Dean was inside the motel's bathroom, he collapsed
facedown on the bed. He didn't know how much more of Dean's music he
could take. He was just inches away from snapping the CD into two. At
least before, Dean could choose from dozens of tapes, tapes that were
currently residing at the trunk right next to their hunting
equipment. Now, Dean had a CD with only
15 songs that only lasted an hour.

Which
meant that for a 12 hour drive, Dean would play the CD over and over
again 12 times.

Which was
not good for Sam's sanity.

He sighed
and rolled over, facing the ceiling and massaged his temple,
attempting to get the songs out of his head in vain. He couldn't even
get a good night's sleep anymore because of the songs that kept
playing over and over again in his head.

As if the
nightmares aren't enough, he grumbled.

Not only
that but the music was beginning to bother him during their hunts.
Just last week, as they encountered a strange case where a spirit was
giving people nightmares and visions of hell in their dreams and
making them think that they were actually residing there which in
turn made them act crazy, Sam found himself 'Lake of Fire' while
salting and burning the spirit's body.

Thankfully,
Dean hadn't heard him. He wouldn't have heard the end of it if Dean
had.

Sam stood
up and walked towards the wide window next to the door and surveyed
the surroundings of the motel. Fortunately, the town they were in
right now wasn't as small as the ones they were used to seeing, which
meant that there were more establishments here, more restaurants,
more shops, etcetera.

Then
something caught Sam's eye.

Just
then, Dean came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.

"What
are you staring at Sam?"

Sam gave
a start. "Um, nothing Dean." He paused. "Listen Dean,
I think we're running out of salt. I should go out and buy some."

Dean gave
him a suspicious look but said nothing. "Okay. Just be careful."

Sam
nodded. "Yeah."

With
that, Sam left the room and began to walk to a building across the
street. The part about running out of salt was true, but he was more
interested in the building next to the grocery store. After passing
for the salt, he entered the store and was met by a blonde girl
around his age who gave him a wide smile.

"Welcome
to Nelly's Music Store, how may I help you?"

o0o

A few
days later

"So,
where we headed?" Sam asked Dean as they rolled out of the
motel's parking lot and onto the freeway.

Dean
checked the newspaper clipping on the dashboard. "Um... Dallas,
Texas. Apparently there have been people disappearing over the last
few months. Police have no suspects and no witnesses."

Sam
nodded. If Dean knew his brother at all, he was probably thinking of
all the spirits or demons that could cause those disappearances.

With a
contented sigh, he turned on the radio, thinking that the sounds of
'Enter Sandman', the first track, would blast through the speakers.

He was
wrong.

'Hey
hey you you I don't like your girlfriend!'

Dean's
eyes widened in shock and instinctively hit the pause button. He
turned to Sam who was struggling to control his laughter.

"Sammy,
what the hell?!"

It took
Sam a couple more minutes until he was finally able to hold down his
laughter and explain himself.

"Four
words, five syllables Dean. I bought a CD." With that, he
started laughing again.

Dean
turned his eyes back on the road, grumbling beneath his breath.
"Figures only a chick like you would buy this kind of stuff."

Sam
laughed even more at that. "Right Dean. Sure, whatever."

"Well
it's not like I can't turn it off or listen to the FM stations."
Dean snapped back.

If
possible, Sam's grin grew even bigger. He widened his eyes
innocently. "So you would rather listen to me try to
psychoanalyze your feelings over the silence or listen to the 2
classical stations that are gonna be playing where we're passing,
over listening to this CD?"

Dean
growled. "Bite me."

Sam
chuckled. "So is that a yes or a no?"

Dean
thought for a few seconds, weighing the pros and the cons. He did not
want Sam to poke and prod about his feelings and he didn't want to
listen to classical music, for God's sake. But for how long could he
keep his sanity listening to this crap?

"Fine.
The CD." He replied at last, a resentful tone in his voice. He
pressed the pause button again and Avril Lavigne's voice began to
fill the car again.

Sam
laughed even harder. "Don't worry Dean, your CD's safe. I just
thought we needed a change. After this song, I think it's Ashlee
Simpson, then Fall Out Boy. Then My Chemical Romance. Besides, who knows, you might actually
come to like this stuff."